Accused murder mum’s ‘bizarre’ comment at Xmas party

MAREE Crabtree shrugged off condolences from a neighbour over the death of her daughter, saying, "I've always said my kids are retarded."

Friends and neighbours have shed more light on the life of the Gold Coast mother, charged yesterday with murdering her son and daughter five years apart and torturing another relative.

Police will allege Crabtree kept her children bedridden to claim disability payments before murdering her daughter Erin and son Jonathan for money.

Erin and Jonathan Crabtree were allegedly murdered by their mother Maree.

Crabtree's lawyer said she would defend the charges.

Erin was 18 when she was found dead in her bed in 2012 while the family enjoyed a holiday on board a cruise ship. Maree told friends she had choked on her own vomit.

Five years later, her son Jonathan, aged 26, died from an apparent overdose at the family's palatial Riverstone Crossing home.

The deaths were initially thought to be suicides, but a large-scale investigation this week led to Crabtree being charged with her children's murders, the torture and grievous bodily harm of a female relative and a range of fraud offences.

She has also been charged with armed robbery, with police alleging she counselled or instructed her son to rob a chemist for prescription pain medication at knifepoint.

Maree Crabtree is accused of killing the two children five years apart.

"She came to our street Christmas party," a neighbour told The Courier-Mail.

"She made some very bizarre comments and then we distanced ourselves from her.